Ashmolean Museum unveils new Fra Angelico

Blackfriars in the person of Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP was delighted to attend the press launch marking the acquisition of an early Fra Angelico Crucifixion.

In the heart of Oxford University’s renowned museum, Cardinal-elect Timothy Radcliffe OP, a member of the Dominican community at Blackfriars, Oxford, was pleased to attend this morning the unveiling of this beautiful icon, saved for the nation through the generosity of donors including friends of Blackfriars.

Having recently returned from the Synod on Synodality in Rome, where he played a key role, Fr Timothy posed with the Ashmolean’s Director, Dr Xa Sturgis CBE and with other members of the Museum’s staff, discussing the spiritual significance of elements of the iconography.

Members of the public will be able to view the icon along with a later Angelico in a few weeks’ time when it goes on public display. Blackfriars is delighted that these devotional works by their illustrious brother will be housed so close to the priory.

Known during his lifetime as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, Fra Angelico was a Dominican friar who created a wide range of devotional works on panels and frescos during the 15th Century in Italy, renowned for their clean and bright colours, careful positioning of figures, and conveyance of human emotion in face and gesture. The Dominican Order is especially indebted to him for his portrayal of St Dominic and other Dominican saints, and for his continuing inspiration to Dominican artists today. He was beatified in 1982 by Pope St John Paul II and made patron of artists by him in 1984. Today is the feast of All Saints of the Dominican Order.

• More information can be found on the Ashmolean Museum’s website.